Why Apple's Artificial Intelligence Acquisition Is Much Bigger Than Siri

Apple quietly acquired a small UK artificial intelligence outfit this week, based in Cambridge and called Vocal IQ, in which many believe is a play to just enhance Siri's capabilities. Vocal IQ, a speech-related artificial intelligence company, says its technology is a core component to the delivery of the Internet of Things. The software, based on more than a decade of research, offers users the ability to talk more naturally with their smart devices.

Vocal IQ introduced the world's first self-learning dialogue API - putting real, natural conversation between people and their devices. Every time your application is used it gets a little bit smarter. Previous conversations are central to it's learning process - allowing the system to better understand future requests and in turn, react more intelligently.

What's interesting is that in 2014, Vocal IQ were working with
General Motors to integrate its capabilities into an intelligent voice-controlled system for its cars that would let users turn on their windshield wipers or adjust car stereo settings by speaking.

The big war brewing in UX is for the voice UX. - Vocal IQ

Vocal IQ, in a 2015 blog post wrote that while Apple won the visual UX, AI assistants like
Google Now, Cortana and even Siri are a long way off from being perfect. Imagine hiring an assistant who, in most cases did not properly understand what you asked it to do, did not bother to tell you what it did not understand, and instead of clarifying what it did not understand, simply executed the result of the misunderstanding. They go on to write that the consumer demand for a self-learning multi-domain conversational voice system where consumers can freely talk about movies, restaurants, music, hotel bookings and the meaning of life, is where the real prize is.

Cupertino, it seems, is a master at spotting a company with excellent potential and technology but terrible at marketing, as Vocal IQ appears to have zero capability in this dept. A brief look at their blog and twitter feed almost confirms this which is why such a below-the-radar find is a steal for Apple despite no details being officially disclosed over the acquisition.

It's also interesting to note that while Apple has formal ties with
IBM for its enterprise play, there have been no apparent conversations around using IBM Watson for any formal partnership opportunities. Apple continues to develop its own capabilities which could mean they have more faith in delivering a truly useful AI for the masses rather than a continuing marketing opportunity that Watson appears to be on the surface.

Apple believes this is the future of interaction with the objects we take for granted today, not just consumer items such as smartphones, tablets, TVs. The entire environment around us is up for grabs. The vision of talking to your computer like in Star Trek and it fully understanding and executing those commands are about to become reality in the next 5 years, not just explicitly but ambiently.

The report last year around GM and Vocal IQ exploring car interfaces points once again to the rumoured BMW-Apple Car (or Project
Titan as it's also known). If Apple cracks an intelligent interface that surpasses Apple Play a hundred-fold it could herald how Cupertino plans to execute a fully autonomous car in the future.

This is also a pointer towards how the future of the Apple Watch and the eventual form factor change of future smartphones in general will unfold. As I've stated here on Forbes before, the Apple Watch currently has no killer use case but it is a trial run for the future of the mobile phone. In fact, LG has proven this model by previewing the successor to the LG Urbane, a new smartwatch with SIM and LTE built in, allowing owners to leave their mobiles at home. A fully realised intelligent assistant such like Vocal IQ would accelerate this vision.

Launching Force Touch was the beginning of the end of how we traditionally interface with connected devices. Steve Jobs didn't see an immediate future for touchscreen iMacs for example, but Tim Cook is taking Apple in different directions and making his own 'ding in the Universe'. Apple's acquisition of Vocal IQ is an example of that ding, a much bigger play than just making Siri more intelligent.

Apple is aiming for an interface that completely rewrites how we interact with everything.